While the transfer portal for college football—and all collegiate sports—was previously reduced to one window last fall, it did not make the management of the portal any less chaotic. If anything, it pumped up the stress for many coaches in Division I programs, mainly because the window is now incredibly short, spanning from January 2 through January 16. The transfer portal rules are much, much different than a couple of years ago, as players now have free reign to transfer each academic year to another school without penalty. 

Though it has been a couple of weeks since the event happened, it’s still processing in some minds of people. Yes, it actually happened. And yes, their quarterback exclusively uses LinkedIn as his only social media. The Indiana Hoosiers, the second losing-est college football program in history and first to ever lose 700 games, won the national championship.

Most casual college football fans in the world know about the big teams that have routinely dominated the sport. This could be schools like Georgia, Notre Dame and Ohio State. But for those who are truly in the loop on college football, there exists an entirely different tier of Division I football entitled the FCS (Football Championship Subdivision), as opposed to the aforementioned FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision). Apart from the FCS being a lower tier of D1 football,  there are quite a few differences. These are, namely, fewer scholarships allocated for each athlete, much smaller schools and stadiums, different conferences and a completely different playoff.  

“Let’s be honest: money in college football does not feel real anymore.” Matt Brown of the Extra Points newsletter and formerly of CBS Sports was the first to say this, noting how the amount of money paid to coaches being bought out (fired, or paid to not coach) has almost exceeded $200 million … Let that sink in. 

If someone were to say ten years ago, during the dominance of Alabama and Clemson, that college football is as fair as it has ever been, most would not bat an eye. And yet, here we are. This divide between expectation and reality in college football right now is second to none in mind-blowing things. For starters, almost half of the teams ranked in the top 25 in the preseason are not ranked at all now. By this standard, everyone is correct in calling this era of college football the era of parity—and chaos!

If you were driving down Lookout Mountain a couple of weeks ago and saw a McCallie M flag on a truck bed or hanging from a tree a flag of the score of last year’s state championship game, something may have came in your head regarding McCallie football…

In September, it was announced after much preliminary discussion that the spring transfer portal would be done away with. After the old portal was done away with and each student was able to transfer an unlimited amount of times starting in 2022, the windows have shrunken each year.  From each year on, they have been at a combined (winter and spring) 60 days, reduced to a combined 45 days, down to a combined 30 days last offseason. However, with the ruling recently, the winter portal will be the standalone portal in which football athletes can announce their intentions to transfer.